Provided by A24
Audio By Carbonatix
Six months into 2026, and the projector has been kind to us. The year sprinted out of the gate with a run of genuinely exceptional films, stumbled through a curiously quiet stretch of early summer, then steadied itself for whatever the fall promises (yes, “Digger” and “Dune: Part Three” loom, and yes, this list will surely shift).
But make no mistake: what we have gathered here are not fleeting curiosities. These are 10 films built to last, the kind that will be argued over, cherished and rewatched. Great cinema, it turns out, still knows how to arrive when we least expect it.
Let us count down.
10. “Mother Mary” by David Lowery
Dallas’ own David Lowery returns with a ghost story that haunts the heart rather than the hallway. Anne Hathaway, in a career-best turn, plays a pop icon reuniting with her estranged best friend and costume designer (a magnetic Michaela Coel) on the eve of a comeback. Think “Banshees of Inisherin” filtered through Lowery’s earthy, cosmic sensibility — two artists clawing toward one another through a decade of buried pain. With original songs from Charli xcx and Jack Antonoff, it’s a symphony of poetic dialogue and unresolved feeling that is profound, beautiful and unmistakably ours.
9. “Toy Story 5” by Andrew Stanton
This is better than any fifth installment has a right to be. Wisely handing the reins to Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack), the film trades franchise nostalgia for a piercing meditation on technology and imagination — a story every modern parent will recognize. Woody and Buzz step aside, and the film is richer for it. Conan O’Brien steals the whole operation as a low-battery potty-training toy, but beneath the laughs lies a genuine ache. It’s messy at the top, then it walks straight into your heart.
8. “The Sheep Detectives” by Kyle Balda
On paper, a flock of computer-generated sheep investigating their shepherd’s murder sounds absurd. On screen, it’s one of the most emotionally devastating and rewarding films in ages. Hugh Jackman is all warmth as the beloved shepherd, and the movie carries the charm of “Paddington 2” wedded to real, aching stakes. It goes to unexpectedly tender, sorrowful places. It’s sweet, endearing and quietly profound.
7. “Obsession” by Curry Barker
The box-office phenomenon of the year was every bit worth the hype. Former YouTube and TikTok creator Curry Barker (of the excellent horror short “Milk & Serial”) spins a monkey’s-paw nightmare: a lovestruck young man (Michael Johnston) buys a cursed, wish-granting novelty item and wishes the girl he adores would love only him. It works catastrophically. Inde Navarrette’s terrifying, shape-shifting and award-worthy performance anchors a film that uses horror to interrogate consent and control with unnerving freshness. Barker hides menace all within the frame, and it lingers.
6. “Leviticus” by Adrian Chiarella
Working in the aching lineage of “It Follows,” director Adrian Chiarella crafts a queer horror triumph where the monster wears the face of whoever you love most. Set in a religious, repressive town, it follows two teens whose forbidden bond summons an entity that stalks them in the shape of desire itself. Joe Bird is remarkable as the central character, translating unseen terror into something we feel in our chests.
5. “The Drama” by Kristoffer Borgli
Kristoffer Borgli’s European-flavored anti-romance begins as the perfect meet-cute and swerves into something far harder to shake. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play newlyweds-to-be whose drinking game — “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” — detonates their future with a single, unexpected answer. What follows is a disorienting, deeply felt study of confusion. Every department, from production design to editing, conspires to capture that vertigo. Unforgettable.
4. “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” by Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann returns to the King, this time with archival Vegas footage restored to gleaming life. There are no talking heads here, only Elvis — electric, sweat-drenched, singular. Luhrmann remixes the material to bridge past and present, honoring the artist while making him feel gloriously alive in the present. You’ll leave nostalgic for a time you may have never lived through, but desperate to have been in that room.
3. “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” by Nia DaCosta
Nia DaCosta lights the franchise’s baton on fire and uses it to illuminate the darkest corners of the human soul. Ralph Fiennes gives a should-be-nominated performance as Dr. Ian Kelson, whose tender, almost theological relationship with an Alpha zombie named Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) supplies the biggest heart of any film this year. Jack O’Connell’s charismatic cult-leader villain provides the screaming. It deserved far better at the box office and belongs in any conversation about the decade’s best films.
2. “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie” by Matt Johnson
Canadian mischief-makers Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll resurrect over a decade of guerrilla footage into a “Back to the Future” flavored time-travel comedy about two friends chasing an impossible dream. Improvised, audacious and stitched together with real-world reactions, it’s a joyous ode to friendship — the thread that binds so many of this year’s best films. Seek it out and prepare to laugh until you ache.
1. “The Odyssey” by Christopher Nolan
At this point, putting the next Christopher Nolan film at No. 1 makes you look like a cliché film bro, but we’re not going to be shy about it. “The Odyssey” is instantly significant. It feels like a monumental and magical event, unafraid to get weird, scary and downright sinister (keep your eyes open for the Circe scene). Usually, this much star power (Zendaya, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and Travis Scott are scratching the surface) steals attention from the story, yet Nolan keeps everything centered on the journey. You feel the weight, the time, the sheer exhaustion of every mile, and you’re absolutely riveted throughout. Not to sound ahead of our time by placing Nolan in the same pool as Kubrick, but really, we’re already there. And what a gift.
